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Thread: Adcor B.E.A.R. ELITE First Impressions Review/Issues

  1. #1
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    Adcor B.E.A.R. ELITE First Impressions Review/Issues

    I recently purchased this Adcor B.E.A.R. Elite rifle (there are two versions, the basic model and the ELITE model; the elite model comes with a FN cold hammer forged barrel and MagPul MOE furniture) and upon first inspection noticed a few issues. Before I get into the issues, I would like to say that the rifle feels very good in hand and is light weight for a gas piston AR system. The rail and upper are perfectly aligned and the external finish is better than any I have seen on comparable rifles.


    Now into the issues. To start, the rifles magazine well (internally) has a lip, about half way up, around the whole perimeter (it sticks out about a 1/32nd of an inch). It appears that the machining process failed to remove the excess metal, and this lip is causing a grove to be created on one side of the P-Mag as the magazine is inserted and removed repeatedly.
    From this picture, you will notice the groove from the bottom:


    This is the groove from the top view:


    This lip does not impede the weapon from functioning; however, it does cause a slight rubbing issue with the magazine. I find this completely unacceptable. The place I was purchasing the ADCOR ELITE rifle from was selling the ELITE upper for $899.00 and the entire rifle for $1499.00. So this means that the lower itself was $600.00. I do not find a lower with misaligned machining to be worth the price they are asking. I could have easily purchased the upper and bought a decent lower for around $300.00 and saved myself some money.

    Secondly, as I have spent some time manipulating this weapon, I have noticed that the front charging handle cover has become worn and a small amount of metal has become exposed on the handle itself. This has caused a vast amount metal to be removed from the front rail where the front charging handle comes into contact with it at closing (the metal being removed looks like chunks have been taken out, and there are flakes of metal all over the rail itself).

    I asked ADCOR if pulling the front charging handle back and letting it go was a proper way of manipulating the weapon, they assured me it was, and that metal should not be coming off. ADCOR initially explained to me that this sounds like a failure of some sort. I have only pulled the front charging handle back and let it go no more than two dozen times for it to get to this point. I do not understand how this is a failure, it appears to be the result of the natural design of the weapon that causes this to happen.

    Each time that the forward charging handle is pulled back and let go, new metal dimples appear and more metal is taken off each time. I could see after doing this around a hundred times, that there would no longer be a shelf there for the charging handle to hold onto.

    Here are some pics:
    The first picture shows where the handle material has come off:


    These next pictures shows the wear area on the rail itself:


    The next couple of pictures shows the wear areas, with the pieces of metal shavings all over the front of the rail:




    I contacted ADCOR and had a long conversation with them regarding these issues. I talked with Jerry (the guy who answers the phone when you first call), and he decided to do a three way call with Brown Jr. (the rifle creators son). Brown Jr. came to the conclusion that I needed to send my rifle in to have the lower replaced because he said that the internal mag well should be smooth, and that metal shaving should not becoming off of the rail where I described. I went ahead and sent the rifle back over the long Labor Day weekend.

    When Tuesday came along, Jerry and Rick (VP of sales who use to work for COLT and FNH) contacted me and told me that nothing was wrong with the rifle and they were unwilling to do anything about the issues. They told me that the mag well problem is present on all of their current production rifle lowers, but will not replace it until the first production runs are sold (because they do not want to loose money on the ones that have already been created, I am assuming). Then after that, they will re-collaborate the machines to take the internal lip away (they stated that the mag well is in military spec; which is a rifle manufactures verbal way of getting out of a screw up). They told me that they will give me a refund now, and in 6 months they will give me a call and tell me when and where to by one that does not have the internal lip issue (so if you currently own the first production and have the internal lip, you decide if it is a problem or not for you).

    Rick also told me that the excessive wearing on the rail and forward charging handle is part of the design and that there was no way of changing that. I told him that after many times of pulling the REAR charging handle back and letting it go that no metal was showing, and that I did not understand how the creators of this rifle could not come up with a better front charging handle design.

    Side note: I talked with Brown Jr. and explained to him that my Daniel Defense (DD) vertical grip does not fit onto the current rail configuration. It appears that the bottom picatinny rail system does not have a wide enough channel to allow this grip to be slid onto the rail. The grip does in-fact slide right onto the upper rail because the channel there happens to be the right width. He told me that they may increase the bottom rail width in future productions.

    I understand that the ADCOR rail is in tolerance and that they do not have to accommodate other manufactures products. I am simply stating this to let everyone know if they intend to put this VG on their ADCOR rifle.

    Here is a picture of the DD vertical grip not fitting; however, you can see that the Grip-Pod fits fine:


    I guess I have the privilege of being their first refund; which they still are trying to figure out how to give me. ADCOR told me that because they have never issued someone a refund, they are unsure of how to do it (it seems to me they never thought someone would have a problem with their "Perfect" rifle). So far, they have contacted the company I bought the weapon from, and are going to give them a credit and make them give me the refund (so they do not loose any money in the process). The company I bought the rifle from says this is an unconventional business practice, and if the rifle was sent back to the manufacturer, that the refund should come from them. ADCOR's website states that if you are not completely satisfied with their product for any reason within 30 days that they will issue you a refund. This doesn't seem to be the case.

    My intention for writing this is to explain the issues I see currently with the design of the rifle and the customer service experience I had with ADCOR (which hasn’t been that great). Overall, I think the guns looks to be reliable when shooting is involved (although I never did shoot it before I sent it back), but the charging handle needs to be designed in a way that does not take off chunks of metal and the internal mag well needs to be smooth; I hope that these problems can be fixed. The fit and finish of the rifle is superb (other than the issues mentioned), and I think that the rifle could be a great success in the future, but in my opinion, ADCOR has a couple of things to work on before they get it right. I took the chance of being the Ginny pig with the first run, and may purchase one in the future if they improve upon the set backs.

    This is simply one mans opinion and experience. If you have purchased the rifle and do not find these issues to be troublesome, than that is fine.
    Last edited by Freerunner; 09-09-11 at 21:07. Reason: Spelling Correction

  2. #2
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    Sell it.

    Buy something else cheaper and better, like a Colt, BCM, DD, etc.

    Forget the piston.

    Good luck.

  3. #3
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    Is that rust on the darker piece the spring is attached to in the fourth picture, and did it come that way?

  4. #4
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    Not creating a warm and fuzzy feeling for ADCOR. You should send them a link to this. It may free up the checkbook.

  5. #5
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    Shouldn't have bought that contraption in the first place.




    If you get a refund what are you going to buy with it?

  6. #6
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    Well that abortion of a charging handle that looks like a shitty clone from an HK roller-lock rifle appears to be steel. Steel is a harder METAL than the aluminum that the rail is made of. I'm guessing that wear is going to always exist with that design. Normal charging handles exhibit wear in the locking notch as well.

    I agree, that sounds like a bogus rifle. Get a direct gas gun from Colt or BCM. Save yourself some money and headaches.

  7. #7
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    Damn ! I was intrigued about the design when I first read about it. As usual what sounded cool in concept and prototype has not translated well to the production models. That is one shoddily made weapon.
    Last edited by FMJ556; 09-09-11 at 17:41.

  8. #8
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    Pretty much what NongShim said.

    It's "metal", not "medal".

    The flakings/shavings from the charging handle area are normal from what I've seen. I don't recall if the notch is square on regular receivers but the Vltor MUR's have a chamfer in that area. Have you tried wiping off the shavings to see how much material is gone? I would get a refund ASAP and purchase another brand.

    Last edited by johnson; 09-09-11 at 18:45.

  9. #9
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    A rep from the company brought one of these by the place I buy my guns and was letting people shoot it. It lived up to it's name, it was indeed a BEAR. That thing must have seriously weighed 12 pounds unloaded.

    On a side note, the Sig rep that comes by that same shop didn't even know what HP or MPI was, nor what a buffer was. And people wonder why sig is in trouble.

  10. #10
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    WOW..my S&W has better fit and finish than that...

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